Marta's Statement

Sharon Adams said in her interview, “The restoration of this community has exceeded my imagination.” I couldn’t agree with her more, especially thinking that at the beginning of this semester Walnut Way meant nothing to me. Having just moved to Milwaukee two years ago when I started school at UW-Milwaukee, I was placed in a city completely foreign to me. The fact that I didn’t have a car kept me isolated from all that this city has to offer. To be completely honest, I didn’t even know where North Ave. was until this year, let alone where the Walnut Way neighborhood was—or that it even existed. I knew Milwaukee was highly segregated and that beyond the east side the city was economically diverse. Then this class, and particularly this project, introduced me to Walnut Way, a once economically stable community, wiped out by the proposal of an expressway and the closing of major manufacturers. A community, which now is undergoing restoration, rehabilitation, and redevelopment—the words are endless. This project forced me, or shall I say allowed me to go out and discover the rich history of the culturally diverse city I live in. Once I was briefly exposed to the brief history of a once thriving African-American community, I was eager to learn more about its past, and once I was exposed to the youth of the community, I was more importantly concerned with its future. This is what made the interview with Sharon Adams so engaging. As an African-American woman who grew up in the Walnut Way community, her story is so inspirational. She returned to Walnut Way after leaving for school and she saw what had become of the wonderful place she once loved, so she decided to do something about it. My goal in this project was to link the community’s economic past with its economic future. Thus, I converted my portion of the interview footage into black and white as a reminder of history. I also accentuated certain words of hers I found important by visualizing them. Mrs. Adams quoted a Greek philosopher who once said, “You can’t step in the same water in the same place.” In response to that, all I can say is my feet are wet.